Sometimes, when the stars are right, the talent for metal sculpture and the talent for machining manifest in one person. It doesn’t happen often, in my experience, but when it does the results are usually mind-blowing. In my years of writing for MAKE, I can think of only a couple of other artist-machinists whose work has affected me in the same way as Chris Bathgate’s: Mark Ho, whose intricately articulated bronze-and-stainless mannequins I wrote about in MAKE Vol 30, and GarE Maxton, whose interlocking solid puzzles are machined in multiple metals and include parts that can be reassembled into other, working machines.

Chris has just released a self-published art book with photos of his catalog and beautiful plan drawings that are almost as eye-catching. It’s slim, at 84 pages, but not too pricey at $19.95. You can buy it directly from Chris’s print-on-demand service here.

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c’t – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.